Instructions

ZOOM IN by clicking on the page. A slider will appear, allowing you to adjust your zoom level. Return to the original size by clicking on the page again.

MOVE the page around when zoomed in by dragging it.

ADJUST the zoom using the slider on the top right.

ZOOM OUT by clicking on the zoomed-in page.

SEARCH by entering text in the search field and click on "In This Issue" or "All Issues" to search the current issue or the archive of back issues
respectively.
.

PRINT by clicking on thumbnails to select pages, and then press the
print button.

SHARE this publication and page.

ROTATE PAGE allows you to turn pages 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise.Click on the page to return to the original orientation. To zoom in on a rotated page, return the page to its original orientation, zoom in, and
then rotate it again.

CONTENTS displays a table of sections with thumbnails and descriptions.

ALL PAGES displays thumbnails of every page in the issue. Click on
a page to jump.

November 21 - 27, 2008 The Independent Weekly 34 www.independentweekly.com.au sportsbeat Sportsbeat magazine available in hotels and clubs every Friday Why are clubs so hesitant on Cousins? ike a glaring irregular- ity in a pathology report, there is something about the Ben Cousins case that doesn’t add up. L Cousins is a superstar, a Brownlow medallist, a four- time best-and-fairest winner, a premiership player, a paragon of the modern game. He is 30, not in his prime but not far out of it; imagine the rush if, say, James Hird or Nathan Buckley had come onto the market at 30. He has proven ability to come back; the last time, after many months, he was almost best-on-ground in his return match. He has dicky hamstrings, true. But his price is a bargain: a low draft pick and perhaps as little as a third of his previous pay packet. In football terms, Cousins is free to a good home. Yet the phone has scarcely rung. Is that not odd? Cousins has a history, of course, hence the intrigue and fuss. But he seems to have satisfi ed the AFL’s stringent demands concern- ing rehabilitation. There are no guarantees; there never are with drugs. But he will be watched so hawkishly that he will scarcely be allowed even to piss except into a jar, under supervision, nor have a haircut lest one lock is lost. In a sense, Cousins would be as Adam Ramanauskas Greg Baum was at Essendon, carrying and being treated for an illness, but one that does not in the short term impair his ability to play football. For the signature of Ben Cousins – available, intact, reformed, prima facie undiminished as a footballer – you would think there would be a queue around the block. Yet by our count, it consists of 1½ clubs: St Kilda certainly, Brisbane Lions less certainly, then nobody.The betting reflects it. Is this not peculiar? Not Collingwood, which was ini- tially enthusiastic, but then mysteriously lost interest. Not North Melbourne, whose attitude characteristically is that if you don’t ask, you don’t know. Not Carlton, which latterly has been in for every half- available player. None of the six clubs with picks ahead of the Lions in the draft. Not even West Coast, Cousins’ home club, the club of which he was called spiritual leader even when he wasn’t captain, the club where he remains a darling of fans. Especially, emphatically, not West Coast. Is this not puzzling? Certainly, Cousins will attract a circus wherever he goes; that will make some clubs uneasy. Certainly he represents a risk to sponsors; that will unsettle some clubs. But football clubs are noth- ing if not pragmatic. Wayne Carey almost destroyed the moral fabric of one club, yet soon found another. Nick Davis’ problem is apathy, as ruinous to a football club as drugs or adultery, yet reportedly is under the Lions’ gaze. On those terms, clubs should be beating a path to Cousins’ door. Yet only two even have paused at the gate, and both bang on about “due diligence”. With due respect to their due diligence, there can be little now that any club does not know about Ben Cousins. Nor the AFL. On Tuesday, the AFL cleared Cousins; it had to. In its parts, its statement looked to be demonstrating the caution, rigour and leadership expected. In its whole, it added up to cruel and unusual punishment for Cousins; the AFL Players Association thought so. It was as if the AFL was saying under its breath that it was making this judgment against its better judgment. Seemingly, the sentiment is shared by the wider football community. It is the only way the Cousins case can be explained. Few clubs – Fairfax have shown any interest in recruiting fallen star Ben Cousins Aussies back on track as England loses its way I have just returned from a seven-day coaching trip to London. While there, it was a surprise to see the newspapers fi lled with so much pessimism about England’s cricket team. Earlier this year I was also in the UK when New Zealand gave England, led byMichael Vaughan, a real run for its money. Vaughan “resigned” the captaincy and was also dropped from the England team. His surprise replace- ment was Kevin Pietersen. The English media made it obvious they didn’t agree with the selectors’ choice. Some cited his South African heritagewhile others made strong reference to his openly confi dent, maybe cocky, manner, which hadn’t rubbed off too well on some teammates. Then there was a situation to be sorted out between Pietersen and England’s coach, Peter Moores. Pietersen openly said he would not take the captaincy unless the two of them resolved their differences. I don’t think that went down very well with the media, either. Anyway, Pietersen took the job and history tells us he not only Terry Jenner won his fi rst Test match as captain, he also scored a hundred. The media did a complete reversal and suddenly the villain became the mes- siah. No more references to England – it became “Team Pietersen”. If you can recall how the English media got carried awaywhen the Poms won the Ashes in 2005, this one Test win against a pretty much undermanned New Zealand was a mini-Ashes celebration. The old catchcry appeared again: “Bring on the Aussies.” To be truthful, it was sickening reading how “Team Pietersen” was readying itself for the 2009 Ashes series. Thatcomment was made after one Test win against very weak opposition. The same media will chop Pietersen and his teammates off at the knees when they fail on their current tour of India. Already into the best of seven one-day interna- tionals and with the Test series yet to come, the hapless Poms are struggling to be competitive. Why? Because they havea very ordinary batting side and an even worse bowling line-up. Sure,Australia struggled in India recently,as we always do, having won only one Test series there since the 1950s. But New Zealand is cannon fodder for the Aussies athome, despite a few new faces in the team. If/when Australia puts New Zealand to the sword in Brisbane and again in Adelaide from next Friday, can you imagine our media referring to the side as “Team Ponting”? Some of the New Zealanders aren’t even household names in their own household! The Kiwis are keen rivals because they are our nearest neigh- bours and have run us close many times over the years, but if they get close in this two-Test series, RickyPonting (left) just might start looking over his shoulder. Australia rarely rides a roller-coaster on the fi eld or in the media, unlike the poor old Poms, who seem to be on it all the time. It is already beginning to happen in India. Pietersen has been weak in press confer- ences and the media is smelling blood. While that is happening over there, Ponting is smoking the pipe over here. Australia will immediately recover from the 2-0 loss to India by destroying the Black Caps. The confi dence from that result will be the ideal build-up for the three Tests against South Africa – in Perth (December 17-21), Melbourne (December 26-30) and Sydney (January 3-7). Meanwhile, “Team Pietersen” could easily become “I knew we should have stayed Michael Vaughan’s England”! All jokes aside, if the Australian media are calling Shane Watson and AndrewSymonds allrounders, they are confusing the usual definition of the special breed of cricketers who carry that title. An allrounder isn’t a batsman who bowls a bit or a bowler who bats a bit. He is a player who can realistically hold down a spot in the side in both facets of the game. On that basis, I suppose Watson comes closer than Symonds, but not close enough. If one ends up batting atNo. 6 and the other atNo. 7 for Australia, and with a struggling Brad Haddin atNo. 8, England might havesome reason for optimism in next year’s Ashes series. I do, however, have faith in the Australian selectors, so that will not happen. After all, they finally got it right with Jason Krejza in India, didn’t they?